Warning: SPOILERS lie ahead for IT: Welcome to Derry season 1, episode 8, “Winter Fire”!
Dick Hallorann narrowly avoided a very tragic demise in IT: Welcome to Derry season 1’s ending, and co-showrunner Jason Fuchs is now teasing how it sets up another major Stephen King story. Played by Perry Mason alum Chris Chalk, the HBO prequel series has seen Dick as an airman working for the Air Force in 1962, and charged with using his telepathic abilities to track down the pillars keeping Pennywise contained in the titular town.

While the next planned seasons of the series are expected to go backwards in the franchise’s timeline, however, Jason Fuchs shared in an interview with ScreenRant‘s Grant Hermanns that there may be more to come from Dick after IT: Welcome to Derry season 1’s ending. As the co-showrunner explained, he “wants to know what happens to Dick” in the years between the HBO prequel’s latest episode and his role in The Shining, given there’s “certainly a bit of time” between the pair:

He doesn’t say to Leroy, “I’m going off to work at a hotel in Colorado.” He says, “I’m going off to London.” What are those intervening chapters in Dick Halloran’s life? I don’t know whether any of those questions will be answered, but it’s fun just to think about them. And who knows?

Dick’s role in IT: Welcome to Derry already proved something of an interesting twist on Stephen King’s world from the moment he was cast in the show. Better known for his roles in The Shining and Doctor Sleep, both the films and novels, Hallorann is one of the many characters to get a mention outside their primary King material in the original IT novel, having been a founding member of The Black Spot and used his telepathic abilities to rescue various survivors, including Mike Hanlon’s future father.

As Fuchs denotes, there are some 15 years between when IT: Welcome to Derry season 1 ends and The Shining begins, opening the door for more stories involving the character. Prior to the HBO series, Mike Flanagan notably was hired to develop a prequel for Hallorann tied to his version of Doctor Sleep, only for the 2019 movie’s box office underperformance to see it shelved. Given both the Muschiettis and Flanagan, who recently wrapped the Carrie miniseries and is working on The Dark Tower, are still in the business of King adaptations, this window of time could lead to one or both moving forward on such a spinoff.

Even if a full spinoff didn’t come about, however, IT: Welcome to Derry could still see Hallorann return after the season 1 ending. The finale established the jumbled nature of time in Pennywise’s head, setting up future seasons going further into the past, but might also have laid the groundwork for Dick’s prior encounter with IT to see his help called upon again. This would also give further reasoning to bringing the rest of the 1962 characters back to help fill in the timeline leading up to the Losers’ Club’s first encounter with IT, as Hallorann helps give closure for certain known deaths to come.

All eight episodes of IT: Welcome to Derry season 1 are available to stream on HBO Max.